Be the bird. Be the skier.

A bird just flew past my window. It was travelling fast, and it ocurred to me that the bird is present, constantly, and therefore constantly aware of its senses, of all the input.Constantly adjusting its course.

This is not how we operate.

One of the unique things about humans, as I understand it, is our awareness. Our awareness of ourselves.

One of my clients talked about how when she is skiing she has to be present. If you aren't present, you get wiped out. That's a strong incentive to stay in the moment.

That's the bird.

The reason she mentioned that, of course, is because of its unusualness in the scheme of her life. But that's not how we are most of the time.

Imagine if, instead of being present, the bird or the skier has their mind elsewhere. A gust of wind, predator, helicopter, crane or tall building would eventually spell disaster for the bird. A tree, drop, changing in slope or other skier would eventually spell disaster for the skier.

And yet, we so often don't slow down in our lives. Speeding up is a powerful tool for productivity. And it's a powerful tool to avoid the things that are difficult to deal with.

Let's take sadness or grief. Most of us have had many experiences of that in our lives and there are many ways to deal with it. And, in the end, no matter how we choose to deal with it - no matter, for example, if we speed up as fast as we can possibly go in the hope we won't remember the lurking sadness - something will bring it back to us.

Kim Morgan says grief is like glitter. You think you've cleared it up, but every now and then you'll find a small piece of it.

You'll slow down, for a moment, and notice that it's there.

The world is a challenging place to operate in, and it is tempting to think that something like sadness or grief is a distraction, is a thing we can just do away with. But it is life. There are few things that feel as alive, to me, as sadness. As pure. And there are few things I deal with worse.

But life is a gift of possibility. As well as this being life, life is that: it is what could be. And if we want to take that gift of possibility, then awareness of life in all its shades is vital. We have to be the bird, be the skier, be so aware of all the information available to us that we are able to dip and dive, swerve and slide in perfect unison with what life throws at us. Even if that information is something that some part of us wants to avoid. Especially then.

That is how we open to what we could be.

We have to notice. We have to slow down. We have to be aware. We have to be present. With the wonderful things and the uncomfortable things.

That is how we open to what we could be.

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This is the latest in a series of articles written using the 12-Minute Method: write for twelve minutes, proof read once with tiny edits and then post online. 

The first 12-Minute Method Book - How to Start When You're Stuck - is out now!